Green Gal

This morning I had the pleasure of interviewing Lily Urmann, my dear friend and fellow UCSC sustainabilibuddy graduate. We spoke about one of her favorite favorite subjects: Biomimicry. The Biomimicry Institute describes biomimicry as "an approach to innovation that seeks sustainable solutions to human challenges by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies. The goal is to create products, processes, and policies—new ways of living—that are well-adapted to life on earth over the long haul. The core idea is that nature has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with. Animals, plants, and microbes are the consummate engineers. After billions of years of research and development, failures are fossils, and what surrounds us is the secret to survival." Lily is fully immersed in the study and development of programs related to biomimicry at Arizona State University. The work of the Biomimicry Center at ASU is at the forefront of biomimicry educati...

Happy Earth Week! I was invited to speak at my high school, Amador Valley High School, in celebration of Earth Week today. It's been awhile since I visited the place where I spent four years of my life learning and exploring my identity as an environmentalist. I actually started this blog while attending Amador Valley High School! Below is the text of my speech that I used as a reference this afternoon. What I actually said varied slightly, but here's the gist: Hello, my name is Melissa Ott, and I graduated from Amador in 2010. I’d like to thank the organizers of Earth Week for inviting me to speak to you all today. Before I begin, I would like to a take a moment to acknowledge that we are standing on indigenous land and honor the Muwekma-Ohlone people who cared for this beautiful valley for generations before it was settled and renamed Pleasanton. The descendants of the Ohlone are still alive today, some of them in the Bay Area working to gain recognition and access to their...

My Spring Break began last Thursday, and I have until Sunday to enjoy time at home. I am studying and preparing for the class on Friedrich Nietzsche that I'm teaching through the Literature Department at UC Santa Cruz next quarter, but in between reading, I've been biking around with Green Guy and my sister. Take a look!  Friday night, I bicycled around town with Green Guy and Jeune Gal for the second night of my Spring Break from college--my last spring break of my undergraduate career!   While visiting Sonoma State with Jeune Gal yesterday, we saw her exact same bike parked in a rack, only a larger size. It was like a sign from the Bicycling Gods that she is meant to go there--and to bring a bike! She did decide to go there after visiting--I'm so proud of her and excited for this new chapter in her life. Go Seawolves! Jeune Gal showed her bicycling style on Sunday night before a party around the block in back jeans, black boots, and a lacy black...

Pi(e) Day Pajama Ride  Bike Party required pajamas, of course! We picked up some pie at New Leaf on the way. Santa Cruz Bike Party happens every second Friday of the month around 7 PM. Learn more here . Yes, that's a couch, specifically The Happening Couch  (you can become friends with it on Facebook ). I rode a tandem bike with my friend Greg (of Moved By Bikes ). He owns this couch, which is equipped with speakers and attached to a trailer attached to the bike. Random folks jumped on it during the ride, and we had two riders get flats and ride the couch so they wouldn't get left behind. We pulled Green Guy up Walnut Avenue (a pretty steep road) after he got a flat... Serious bike party awesomeness right there. What's a bike party without a dance party? Green Gal and Green Guy! We rode up the hill to campus after the evening's festivities, having our own bike party along the way.

It's been a bike writing day for me. Last week, I was interviewed for a Good Times article about the bike commuting workshops I'm co-designing and facilitating through my IDEASS bike internship. This afternoon when I walked by a stack of Good Times newspapers, I flipped through one. The article about our workshops began on page seven, and the photograph of my bicycle and me was on page ten. How awesome--my bike's never been in the paper! The article quotes Amelia, the Director of People Power, and me, but it doesn't mention my team partner Aly by name. If I had it my way, she'd have gotten a quote in the article, too! She does so much great work for our team, and she always has a cheerful attitude. I'm so grateful to have a motivated team partner who cares about our project and does a fantastic job! Our hope is that people will read this article and attend one of the workshops--and then they can hear from Aly, too!   Read the article ...

This post is the second part of a series about my weekend. Yesterday I went on a hike with other women to learn about and engage with nature connection. You can read about it in part one of this series here . Today, day two of this beautiful, sunny weekend, I woke up early and fortunately on time because my cell phone automatically switched for the time change. The things our technology can do these days! After a quick breakfast in the dining hall, I flew down the hill on my bike toward town. I say flew because today I was going to be a "SOUP'er Hero!" I was invited to an event a few weeks ago titled "SOUP'er Heroes Bike Ride & Food Distro," and after reading the description, I was souper stoked to partake in such a great cause by bike. The description read, "Join us for a day of community service, food and cycling! Together we will ride to local farms and secret gardens, harvest veggies, make soup, and distribute it to feed the hungry masses...